You're right about Apple, as I indicated in my initial post when I said that Microsoft's mobile strategy has been a disaster. However it is important to keep in mind that a company always has to deal with problems on multiple fronts. The fact that I think they made a good decision on one issue doesn't mean that they didn't make bad ones elsewhere.

I think it is also important to pay attention to the timeline. The Xbox decision was made under Bill Gates. The Apple missteps were made under Steve Ballmer. There may be a reason for that...